River

By under which a number of colonies passed from French to British control, - Theresa A. this Royal Proclamation addressed many Ferguson aspects of colonial administration. Among other matters, it sought to regulate relations between the colonies and native peoples by affirming native On May 1, 1842, an agreement was territorial rights. Any transfer of land signed at Fort Vermilion by five title was to be conducted on a members of the Beaver Indian Nation government to government basis,3 and by William Shaw, the Hudson's Bay involving a public meeting of the Company clerk in charge. As a "mark of Indians involved, negotiations by a [their] regard and attachment," the representative of the British Crown on Beaver people ceded land to Shaw on behalf of the British Crown, and transfer the Little Red River, running upstream by purchase. from its confluence with the . The land grant is described Despite the intent of this proclamation, variously as "nine miles square" and individual Europeans did continue to "nine square miles." In return, William occupy native lands, both with and Shaw promised to move ancestral graves without their approval. The to a "secluded spot beyond the Shaw/Beaver agreement presents one Boundaries," once he was in possession particular instance. The intent of this and engaged in farming.' paper is to provide the historical context for this agreement. Above: This event is preserved in oral tradition as well. H.J. Moberly, who was Shaw's The location of the land cession William Shaw neighbour at on the Peace in document is unknown. A copy is held at Left, upper corner: 1868-69, recounted that, "he also the Glenbow Archives in Calgary, as part Little Red River post is located showed me a parchment signed by three of the collection presented by the

4 just east of Fort Vermilion on this chiefs, Cree and Beaver Indians, giving McDermid Studios of Edmonton. him forever all the land he could see 1887 map of the Athabasca district. from the mouth of the Little Red River at The main source of information about its junction with the Peace River. This no this period and the signatories are the Left: doubt was a perfectly legal transfer."2 Hudson's Bay Company records, View of Beaver Indian camp in particularly the post journals for Fort the Peace River area. Actually, such land negotiations by Vermilion. These are almost complete individuals were expressly forbidden by for the years 1834 to 1847, but there are the Royal Proclamation of 1763. major gaps both before and after these Following upon the Treaty of Paris, dates. The Roman Catholic records provide information on the families of Acheway, La Bonne Bouche (Good the signatories. The Isabel Loggie Mouth), La Patate (The Potato), and papers, now held at the Glenbow William Shaw. Ihay signed as a witness. Archives, provide information on In contrast to the oral tradition reported William Shaw and on his stepson, Felix by Moberly which states that Cree Akinnum.5 persons were involved, all of these people were of the Beaver Nation. The However, there appears to be no agreement gives Dents Malfaits the documentation of the negotiation itself. alternate name of Makasis. This is Cree, The post journals for Fort Vermilion probably for Little Fox, but it does not were official Hudson's Bay Company necessarily indicate that he was a Cree, records and make no reference to this merely that he had been given a Cree private agreement. It is not clear if other name. members of the Beaver tribe even knew Dents Malfaits was known to the fur traders as the chief of the Beaver people of the Fort Vermilion area. An alternate Dene name provided by the 1825-26 post account book" is Teltonkie. However, the post journals always referred to him as Dents Malfaits. His hunting territory extended from upstream of Fort Vermilion over to the Upper where he hunted with the Cadottes, the Fourniers, and other Chipewyans. His family consisted of at least a wife, a daughter, and two nephews. From the mid-1830s on, his health was poor but he was still able to bring in a good fur hunt. On October 19,1841, for instance, the journal noted the "appearance of the Old Chief, i.e. Dents Malfaits scarcely able to walk but of the land grant. What the post journal brought in 18 MB and a Bearskin."9 does indicate is that the local hunters Dents Malfaits appears to have died and trappers were mostly away from the sometime between 1847 and 1857, a fort at the time of the signing of this period which is not documented by any agreement. The entries for April 30 and Fort Vermilion journals. May 1, 1842 read: Both La Bonne Bouche and La Patate Most of the Indians left with the were fort hunters and for many years exception of our Fort Hunters, La supplied the post with fresh meat, both Above: Bonne Bouche & Lapatate, who for immediate food needs and for the remain here a few days longer but will pemmican required for the canoe View of the mighty Peace River soon be off from this also.6 brigades. The main period of when visited by William Francis Fine day - All the Indians off for the employment for fort hunters was fall to Butler in 1872 . Spring hunt except the two Fort spring, but La Bonne Bouche and La Hunters, La Bonne Bouche and Patate seem to have been employed by Lapatate, whom I have engaged for the post for much of the year, that purpose - they have two lads to occasionally serving in other capacities assist them as meat haulers and such as making snowshoes or procuring occasionally to hunt besides.7 bark for the roofs of the post buildings.10

The main signatories to this agreement Both men were hired as fort hunters by were Dents Malfaits (Bad Teeth), the time of the 1834 journal. Subsequent journals are full of references to their Bonne Bouche as an old man for the first movements in and out of the vicinity of time and 1844 was the last year in which the post and to their runners coming in he served as a fort hunter. Like Dents with news of cached animals. Although Malfaits, La Bonne Bouche probably fort hunters moved about according to died in the 1847-57 period not covered the abundance of animals, each had his by the Fort Vermilion post journals. traditional area." For La Bonne Bouche, this was the Caribou River and the area La Patate's alternate name given on the towards the Caribou Mountains. La land cession document was Takousay Patate's "old station behind the Fort Ta. This reflects a naming tradition /south of the river"12 was specified and documented in the 1825-26 Fort there were frequent references to his Vermilion census17 whereby fathers took hunting towards the Buffalo Head Hills alternative names based on the name of and Buffalo . their eldest son plus the suffix "tah."18 La Patate's stepson was known as Takousay. La Bonne Bouche was also referred to as La Patate is a name not found on the Azaliste in the 1825 Fort Vermilion 1826-27 Fort Vermilion census but there account books and was described then as is a Patah listed as an unmarried male a middle-aged man.13 Mentioned in the adult child, brother to L'Our Blanc post journals are an unnamed son, a [White Bear]. In the 1840s La Patate's stepson, and two wives. The son appears family consisted of three wives and in the post journal in the 1840s, first, hunting with his father, and by 1847 as an independent fur hunter. The 1846 Roman Catholic records note the 14n£cLj *•/>*»• e%f tc*nu*£' 5^ - - baptisms of three much younger children of La Bonne Bouche and Klozoin, ranging in age from two to six years.'4

La Bonne Bouche was also known as a healer and in 1844, the author of the post journal, presumably Shaw, noted that: "Yesterday Sylvestre's Boy very unwell and he wishing much to see Bonne Bouche to get him to sing his medecine Songs over his Child, allowed him to pay him a visit to the Old Man for that purpose and gratify his wish, though I told him it was going a long way for a Song.'"5

La Bonne Bouche's. interest in the spiritual life also led him to consider other traditions: "La Bonne Bouche of numerous children. One son was old his accord is remaining here today - he is enough to be hired in 1844 for errands Above:

the first Indian I have seen keep the around the post and the Roman Catholic This is the agreement signed by Sabbath and is determined hereafter records of 1846 noted the baptisms of Beaver Indians in 1842. The never to do any work or hunt on that day, seven children ranging in age from one original was obtained by F.S. says that since the Rev'd Mr. Evans to seven years by three wives, Atoueh, Albright, of the Peace River area, wishes all the people to keep that day for Seszle, and Aieyoungeh." and taken to McDermid Studios of the Great Spirit alone, he should be sorry Edmonton in 1929for copying. 16 to break or not follow his order." La Patate continued to serve as a fort The location of the original hunter up through 1846, although he document is unknown. The 1841 post journal referred to La suffered a number of instances of ill health, including a rheumatic The migration of the Cree into this area complaint.20 Like Dents Malfaits and La was a gradual process. During the 1830- Bonne Bouche, his name disappears 40s, parties of Cree occasionally passed from the records during the 1847-57 gap through the region, travelling down Loon in post journals. River (now called the Wabasca River) on their way to Fort Chipewyan. Frequent The other two signatories, Acheway and and longer visits were paid by two Ihay, were cited in the post journals of brothers, Baptiste and Alexis Auger, to the late 1830s and 1840s as reliable fur the Fort Vermilion and Fort Dunvegan and meat producers for the post. After areas during these decades. These two 1840, they often hunted together and brothers were described as being from with members of Le Montagnier's the head of the Loon River,2' and were family. undoubtedly representatives of the Auger family at Trout . Such visits turned into a migration north from the Trout Lakes.22 By the mid-1870s, a permanent group of Cree occupied the lower Loon River and Little Red River area.23

According to the Hudson Bay Company records, William Shaw was in the company's service from 1839 to 1869 at various posts in the Athabasca District, including Fort Vermilion (1839-51, 1852-57, 1866-67), Fond du Lac (1857- 60), Fort Dunvegan (1851-52, 1860-63, 1864-65), Battle River (1867-69), and Fort St. John (1863-64). He was the clerk in charge at Fort Vermilion in 1842. From 1870 to 1874 he lived as a freeman in the Fort Vermilion area, and from 1876 to his death in 1878, he was a pensioner at Fort Vermilion.24

Shaw's family is mentioned in both the post journals and in the Roman Catholic The land cession document describes the church records. His wife was Marguerite Beaver people as the "sole possessors" Taskounaham. Her children by her first of the Little Red River area. This land is husband, a Beaver Indian named Ateita now part of the Little Red River Cree or Atesta, were Felix (called Akinnum), traditional territory. In the 1840s the Peter (called Apsassin), and Gabriel. issue of territorial ownership below the These men were occasionally identified chutes on the Peace River appears to by the surname of Shaw.25 William and Above: have been ambiguous. There is an Marguerite's children were William The severe winter conditions in occasional reference in the post journals Junior, Emma, and John. the north are reflected in this to meat cached at the chutes for the fort, early view of a Beaver Indian or of a family camped at the chutes, but Moberly's narrative records that William camp in the Peace River district. there is no reference to any Fort Shaw died of a cold caught during his Vermilion family using the chutes area, Christmas visit to the post in 1877. The or the Little Red River area, on an post journal of January 4, 1878, notes: ongoing basis. This area may well have "Mr. Shaw died last night by taking an acted as a buffer zone between the overdose of laudanum by mistake. He Beaver people of Fort Vermilion and the having been unwell for some time, the Cree and Chipewyan peoples of Fort old man did not know the way to use Chipewyan. such a medecine."26 After William Shaw's death, the family NOTES 14 Provincial Archives of (PAA), Oblate Records, Fort des Prairies, Baptemes, Manages et Sepultures. left Fort Vermilion and settled in the Acknowledgements: ! would like to acknowledge the 1842-59, pg. 233. permission given by Father Casterman, omi, for access to region of Grouard, Battle River the Fort des Prairies registers; and by Glenbow Archives 15 HBCA, 8224 a/9, July 6, 1844. and Hudson's Bay Company Archives (HBCA) for Settlement, and Fort St. John. publication of archival materials. 16 H8CA, B224 a/8, April 3, 1842. Marguerite died in Grouard in 1918 at 1 Glenbow Archives, M6719. William Shaw, land the age of 86." agreement with Beaver Indians, 1842. 17 HBCA, B224 d/2, 1825-1826. 2 HJ. Moberly, "Reminiscences of H.B.C. Pioneers, No. 3, 18 See reference to suffix "ta" in RE. Goddard, 1917 William Shaw." The Beaver, January 1924, 129. "Beaver Texts, Beaver Dialects," Anthropological There is no evidence that William Shaw Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, 3 Royal Proclamation of 7 October 1763 as reproduced volume X, parts V and VI, pp. 415-16. ever acted upon this agreement and took in Brian Slattery, "The Land Rights of Indigenous People," D. Phil, thesis, Oxford, 1979.. 19 PAA. Fort des Prairies, 1846 Subsequent baptisms in up farming at Little Red River. Indeed, the Fort Vermilion and Fort Dunvegan Roman Catholic his choice of the relatively isolated Little 4 The land agreement, said to be written on moosehide, records, associate the name Atzake/Etseke/Azeke with was obtained by FS. Albright of the Peace River area this family along with the variant name. La Pataque. Red River area for farm land is one of and taken to McDermid Studios in 1929 for copying. A facsimile of this document may also be found in the the questions raised by this case, since Ernest Brown collection held at the Provincial Archives 20 Eg. HBCA B224 a/8. October 14, 1841. (PAA Photo Collection B7115). there was excellent agricultural land 2) HBCA, B224 a/9, entries of September 10, 1843 and October 10, 1844. near Fort Vermilion. Perhaps Dents 5 Glenbow Archives, M4560, file 39. Malfaits was only willing to give land in 6 HBCA, B224 a/8, April 30, 1842. 22 HBCA, D25/9, Inspection Report, Peace River, 1889, Trout Lake Outpost. an area not much used by the Beaver 7 HBCA, B224 a/8, May 1, 1842. 23 HBCA, B224 a/16, 1875-79. people and of ambiguous ownership. 8 HBCA, B224 d/2. 24 HBCA, Biographies of Company Servants, William 9 HBCA, B224 a/8. October 19, 1841. Shaw. Moberly's narrative (op.cit.) suggests that Theresa A. Ferguson is a contract William Shaw was also the man of the same name who 10 HBCA, B224 a/9, August 17, 1844; B224 a/5, June, 1836. served at in the 1819-21 period and researcher in treaty land entitlement after whom Shaw Point was named. The Hudson's Bay 11 For an analysis of Beaver hunting territories at Fort Company records document this earlier William Shaw, with a special interest in the Treaty Vermilion at this time see Angel, "Fur Trade Relations but they do not identify him with the William Shaw of with Native People at Fort Vermilion: 1821-1846," in the Peace River posts. Eight area. She also teaches at the Patricia A. McCormack and R. Geoffrey Ironside, eds. Proceedings of the Fort Chipewyan and Fort Vermilion School of Native Studies, Bicentennial Conference. Edmonton: Boreal Institute 25 Oblate Records, Grouard Registers, Baptemes, University of Alberta, and at for Northern Studies, 1990. Manages et Sepultures, 1881-1900. Athabasca University. 12 HBCA, B224 a/7, September 14, 1840. 26 HBCA, 8224 a/16, entry of January 4, 1878. 13 HBCA. B224d/2. 27 Oblate Records, Grouard Registers, April 10, 1918.

Harvest Excursions, 1902

The harvesters' excursions to Manitoba and the Northwest commenced yesterday and for a few hours the Union Station .was the busiest spot in town. The men came from Toronto, from points east of Toronto to Sharbot Lake and Kingston, including the Midland division, and north of Toronto and Cardwell Junction. Three carloads were attached to the regular North Bay train at 1:45 pm and there seemed to be thousands left behind them. These were taken in special trains later in the afternoon. Three specials of twelve, nine, and six coaches respectively were sent out, and all the cars were filled. The figures of the railway companies showed that about 1,700 took advantage of the cheap rates. In addition to the thirty cars required for the accommodation of the harvesters, six baggage cars filled with personal effects were sent out.

Yesterday was not expected to be a heavy day but the traffic was quite satisfactory to the railway officials. A bigger rush is expected today, when the territory covered by the main line, Toronto to Sarnia, and the district north to Cardwell Junction will be affected.

It is rumored that the supply of men this year will fall short of last year's contribution to the western agricultural army. Farm laborers are rather scarce in Ontario, and men can obtain positions here without much trouble. Comparative figures were not obtainable at the Union Station yesterday, excepting that last year, when the excursions were spread over several days, the total number of harvesters sent from Ontario points was 11,438.

The Globe, Toronto, August 22, 1902. major highway routes to such locations The 1984 edition of this book has been as Head Smashed in, Sundial Butte, revised and updated. The author , Writing on Stone, and interviewed more than 150 women to Zephyr Creek. obtain their stories. DONATIONS September 15,1998 to December 1,1998

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